MacGIOLLA's GUERRILLAS .......Fifteen years ago , the leadership of the 'Official Republican Movement' (now 'The Workers' Party') stated that their armed wing , the 'Official IRA' , went out of existence .Today , the 'Official IRA' is alive and well and living mainly in Belfast and Newry . In the days when both organisations were operating in an overt way , the leadership of 'The Workers' Party' and the 'Official IRA' overlapped to a certain degree . Tomas MacGiolla , the man who led the 'Official IRA' for the last twenty-five years has always maintained the position that the 'Official IRA' went out of existence in 1972 . But the 'Official IRA' still march on , not an army fighting the British , but as a fund-collecting agency . DEREK DUNNE traces the roots of the 'Official IRA' and 'The Workers' Party' .From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine , October 1987 .

Sean Garland went on to say that "...the enemy today is Anglo-American imperialism . We must all the time be conscious of this fact . " He makes no mention of the fact that the Workers' Party support what could be termed the bastion of ' Anglo-American imperialism' - multinational investment .

Neither did he mention that the Workers' Party are now effectively pro-EEC . Sean Garland is indicative of the Workers' Party today - he epitomises the contradictions and the changes that have manifested themselves . It could be considered a source of wonderment how a party that has changed so much could still be led by the same people . ('1169....' Comment : we could supply a link here to another Leinster House-registered political party which "has changed so much [despite being] led by the same people... " [since 1986 , that is - when they registered themselves as a political party] , but we believe you know to whom we refer!)

What is now the Workers' Party has gone from a position of traditional militant republicanism to espousing an ideology which is ostensibly hard left . They also claim to have severed all links with their military tendency . However , the Official IRA is still active , mainly in Belfast ....... (MORE LATER).

GARDA GUN FIRE : WHO TO BELIEVE?Close analysis of television news film of incidents last month at Emyvale suggests a garda's gun went off accidentally . But that is not what the Minister of Justice told the Dail .GENE KERRIGAN looks at the evidence. From 'MAGILL' magazine , June 1987 .

Gardai very rarely fire their guns . When they do , their actions become the subject of public scrutiny ; the facts are required to be explained to Leinster House by the State Minister for Justice .

On Wednesday , May 11 1987 , Gerry Collins gave an account of incidents of two days previously , in Emyvale , County Monaghan , when a garda detective fired both from a submachine gun and a revolver . Collins' account denied the truth of what was evident from the TV news reports seen by hundreds of thousands of people . The garda's revolver was seen to have been discharged accidentally . As a result of what happened , two garda representative organisations have been drawn into conflict with one another over the facts and the interpretation of the facts .

LIAM MELLOWS AND THE IRISH CIVIL WAR .......This is the bulk of a public lecture given at University College , Galway , by Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member and Deputy General Secretary of the 'Local Government and Public Services Union' , Phil Flynn , on December 8th 1982 , the 60th Anniversary of the Free State's execution of Liam Mellows .First published in 'IRIS' magazine , March 1983 .

On 11th September , 1922 , Liam Mellows wrote to Austin Stack : - " The unemployed question is acute . Starvation is facing thousands of people ; the official Labour Movement has deserted the people for the flesh-pots of Empire . The Free State government's attitude towards striking postal workers makes clear what its attitude towards workers generally will be . The situation created by all these must be utilised for the Republic . The position must be defined : FREE STATE - Capitalism and industrialism - Empire . REPUBLIC - Workers - Labour . "

There is strong evidence that Liam Mellows was very influenced by James Connolly and certainly they had a lot in common politically as is clear from these documents . For example , the connection between the national and social struggles and the sense of internationalism . As Desmond Greaves points out in his book - " In his analysis of the character of the proposed Free State he must surely have been one of the first to discuss the new methods of imperial domination ... " (subsequently christened 'neo-colonialism') .

His insistence on politics , his demand for a return to the masses as the basis of the revolution , for the political education of republican soldiers , and for the establishment of a new revolutionary government , show him to have been as Peadar O' Donnell justly remarked - " ...the richest mind our race has achieved for many a long day .. " (MORE LATER).